First Sentence?

Caedmon loves getting to play with his "Dada." Whenever he arrives home from work in the evenings, Caedmon rushes to the door yelling "DaDA! DaDA!" Normally, he is in the highchair when Dada leaves for work in the morning, and they have a routine of saying goodbye to each other. This morning, I think Daniel inspired Caedmon's first sentences...after he left, our little guy got really quiet for a few minutes, holding Duck, then he looked up at me and said, very seriously, "Bye, Dada. Dada 'b-b-b-b.'" (a rolling "b" is his sound/word for "car.")

Sandman

As I've mentioned before, Caedmon loves to be outside, and one of his favorite things to do outside is to play in the dirt. He's never been picky about the type of dirt, where it is, if it's muddy or dry, etc. But that was before he experienced sand. He has a sandbox at his Gramma and Grandpa Dude's house, which has provided much entertainment for him. On a recent visit, his Gramma brought him a bucket of sand with some smaller buckets to fill and empty - oh, the possibilities! He puts sand in little cups, scoops it with his shovel, flings it into the air, pours it into his sandals, makes piles and then scatters them, and just generally has a grand time. We hope to get a real sandbox for him soon, but until then he seems to be completely happy with his bucket!



Our little Sandman has also been amazing us with his transition to sleeping in a big-boy bed. It's been two weeks since we first put a twin sized bed in his room, and although he slept in it the first night (we think he wasn't certain how to get out) he had gotten up every night since then until we finally put him in his crib. This past Tuesday, however, we put him in his bed, told him goodnight, and went into the living room to wait for him. A minute passed, then two...then ten...and we realized that although we could still hear him "talking," he was not getting up. Since then he's slept in his bed every night and for most of his naps. Wow! Such a grown-up little guy. I can't get a good photo of him sleeping because I'm afraid the loud camera shutter will wake him, but I did snap this one from the door - what nap would be complete without a duck, blanket, and good book?


It's so hard to leave him at bedtime - even though by that time we're generally exhausted too - he's such a little character! After his bath we read books together, then he climbs up into bed to say prayers. We pray and tuck him in, then he looks up and says insistently, "Je-ja!" which means he wants us to sing "Jesus Loves Me." We comply, then the rest of our conversation sounds something like this:
Us: "Caedmon, it's time to sleep in your bed now."
C: "By-y-e!" (said with somewhat of a Southern drawl - and about three syllables)
Us: "We love you."
C: (makes kiss sound)
Us: "Night night."
C: "Nigh nigh."
Us: "Sleep good. We'll see you in the morning."
C: "By-y-e."

Most of this is punctuated by him sucking his thumb, and occasionally re-requesting "Je-ja." It's so hard to stop talking to him - his responses are so precious!

We are also practicing self-feeding. While we generally make a fork and spoon available and encourage him to use them, Caedmon still generally finds it much more convenient to eat most foods with hands. However, as he demonstrated for me with his yogurt at breakfast one morning this week, he's actually quite adept with a spoon. He ate almost the entire bowl by himself, hardly dripping any yogurt at all!

The Many Faces of Caedmon

After commenting in my last post that I've been having difficulty capturing Caedmon's face (since he's always on the move) I had a great afternoon of photography with him. I'd love to know what he's thinking sometimes!





There's definitely a lot going on in that sweet little head, whether we understand it or not. He has learned how to "pretend" a few things, which is fun. First of all, when he's in a silly mood, he will make himself laugh at random things. It's a very fake laugh, but it usually makes him laugh genuinely at himself afterwards anyway. He has also learned how to smack his lips and say "mmm!" when tasting something - whether it's something he thinks is tasty, like ketchup on a waffle, or yucky, like his bath wash.

We are just coming out of a phase where it seemed like everything elicited the same response from Caedmon - a hearty "whoa!" I heard it many, many times a day for a week or so, but now he appears to have gotten it out of his system. It was pretty amusing while it lasted though!

Almost all of Caedmon's furniture and toys are now in his new room, and he has had a great time checking it all out, romping around in the extra space, and most of all, figuring out his new twin bed. He has been great about taking naps in that bed, and even slept in it overnight the first night we had it! Since then, he's learned how to get up out of bed, though, so we're still practicing with the naps, and on the second or third "get-up" at night, let him go back to his crib. He's well on his way to being prepared for us to welcome his new little brother or sister into the nursery!

Curls

That's what I see a lot of these days - wispy blonde curls. Our sweet little boy has grown so much - and so has his hair! It's adorable, and I get a great view of it as I chase him around on his daily adventures. It's becoming increasingly difficult for me to photograph him facing me, as our curious guy always has another destination to explore.

Caedmon loves to be outside - or as he says numerous times a day, "aut!!" I think exploring the different terrains of our yard has made a huge difference in his balance and stability as he can now walk confidently through our grass, down the sidewalk, and up and down inclines without any difficulty.
One of his favorite outside toys is this little pull-toy chime, which has made countless trips around our yard and driveway, up and down our block, and even through the neighbors' yards. A $2 find at a consignment sale has provided hours and hours of fun for him and us. Thank you, Grammy! He does play with it in the house, too, but really loves exploring the outdoors with it in tow.
Caedmon has become more interested in all animals - and his repertoire of animal sounds is ever-expanding - but the majority of his first-hand interactions are with Andre. He's gotten much better at being "soft" while petting him, calls "kitty kitty" (sounds like "k-k-k") and makes meowing noises, which admittedly, sound like a cat in a bit of distress.

A new family friend has really become quite important to Caedmon, and so, to all of us. His Gramma and Grandpa Dude gave us this sweet little yellow duck for Little Baby Schwarz at Christmas, but Caedmon has claimed it and has it with him most of the day. We don't let Duck (who he calls by name) go outside most of the time, but he goes almost everywhere else with us. One night Duck had to leave the crib after Caedmon went to sleep so that I could wash him, and the next morning, Caedmon was determined to find him before we could do anything else.

We are almost ready to move Caedmon into his new bedroom (formerly, our guest bedroom) so that the nursery is ready for his new little brother or sister. He's already had so much fun watching us moving things around and romping around the big empty room. We're 31 weeks along in this pregnancy, and know that the next two months will go by so quickly! It is such a joy to know we'll soon be meeting our little blessing and miracle!